The residential mortgage industry has seen a big rise in non-bank lenders this year, but PNC Bank never got he memo; business expanded throughout the year
and is poised for growth going forward.

Behind its success is a wide array of products. The company last year was an early adopter of the “ 3 percent down”
mortgage products rolled out by Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac, and it continues to be a major FHA lender—one of the
few large banks still doing a lot of loans with the agency.

For customers who don’t fit neatly into FHA or Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac products, the company also has its own
a;ordable 97 percent loan-to-value program, which gives
underwriters the flexibility to look at nontraditional credit
history criteria such as past rental payments in assessing the
applicant’s ability to repay.

To improve loan applicants’ experience, the company isdoing a full underwriting within three days of receiving loanapplications and has rolled out new online tools—HomeInsight® Tracker and PNC AgentView®—to make it easier forapplicants and real estate agents to follow what’s happen-ing throughout the processingperiod.

REALTOR® Magazine spoke
with Pete Boomer, Executive
Vice President of mortgage originations at PNC Bank N.A., to find
out about what’s new at PNC and
what it has planned for next year.

How has the residential loan origination business been for
your company in the last year? We saw a slight increase in
refinances at the beginning of the year, when rates dropped,
and overall volume in the second quarter has continued to
increase as well. Since low rates have been around for some
time, many people have already refinanced. The good news
is, there is growth in the home purchase market and that has
more than o;set the drop in refinances.

Low interest rates are helping with a;ordability. But are
rising home prices a concern? I don’t have great concern
with the appreciation we’re seeing. There are some markets,
primarily in California, where prices are getting high, especially in luxury real estate. Home valuations have rebounded
to where they were before the financial crisis in 2008. But
we have a di;erent dynamic now. We have full employment,
people are buying homes to live in rather than as fourth or
fifth investment properties, mortgages are being completely
underwritten, rents continue to increase (which makes buying
a home a more a;ordable option when compared to renting),
and lenders are doing their due diligence to ensure buyers can
a;ord the properties they are purchasing. So, we’re watching
home a;ordability but we don’t have the same concerns we
had before the crisis.

Does that make this a good time to buy? Absolutely. If you
say you’re going to wait another year or two, you might be
missing a valuable window.